Pages

Monday, August 22, 2016

The Woman in the Moon and Rainbow Falls

The Goddess Hina was very upset. Her husband was so lazy!
Not only did he expect her to make him fine kapa to wear, but he expected her
to fish, and keep the garden, and even do all the cooking! She loved making kapa,
and was very good at it, but cooking was a man’s prerogative, and fishing and
gardening were normally shared. Yet her husband demanded she do it all while he
napped.

She decided to run away, but how?

One day, she spotted one of the many rainbows the falls
by the cave she made her home in were named for. It looked solid, and she was
goddess enough to go up to it and start to climb. However, as she climbed, it
got hotter and hotter, for she was getting closer to the hot sun. It got so
hot, she had to turn around and go back.

Back to her husband, who was as lazy as ever. He still
demanded he do his work as well as her own. Running away looked better and
better, but she had to make sure she escaped this time.

One night she spotted a moonbow by the falls. With no sun
out, it shouldn’t get as hot, she mused. She went over to it, and started to
climb.

Her husband came out of the cave, and ran towards her,
demanding she come back. He leap ed towards her, and caught her foot before
she’d climbed out of reach. She struggled to get away. With a great kick, she
pulled free, making him fall back to earth… but wrenched her ankle in the
process. She wasted no time, hobbling high out of reach before he could recover
and try again.

She climbed right to the moon, and there she stayed. You
can see her when you look up at the moon, sitting with her wrenched ankle in
front of her as she pounds her kapa. When she spreads it out to dry, it forms
white clouds, complete with the original emphasis on her husband’s laziness. (No, that
wasn’t my idea. J )

I don’t know many legends by heart, but I know this one
well enough to tell it from memory. It’s stuck with me ever since I heard it at
a storytelling at Kea’au library when I was a kid. This was one of the stories,
illustrated on a felt board.

The Goddess Hina was known as the mother Maui. The Hilo
area said she lived in a cave behind Waianuenue, or Rainbow Falls.

I don’t see any cave. Well, unless you count the backwash
beach behind the actual falls, but that’s subject to continual spray from the
falls. Besides, that kapa she made was a paper-cloth; the fibers were literally
pounded together with beaters until it formed a flat, somewhat stiff sheet that
people would wrap around themselves. If you got it wet, it went to mush that
couldn’t be worn. So a backwash beach home is one you can’t get dressed in, or
even keep your clothes in.

Now this is a spot on the Wailuku River. There are enough
caves with underwater entrances, a known way to drown is to get caught in one,
and not be able to surface for air. Having one with an air pocket would be
unusual, but far from impossible… but you’d still have to store your clothes
outside to keep them from going to mush.